At present time, mobile telecom service providers have to control their networks in order to provide their subscribers with relevant and useful services. Such telecom providers usually face a wide range of mobile terminals their subscribers use in their networks. Therefore, a subscriber identification card known as SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card is associated to each subscriber, to be inserted in the subscriber mobile terminal.
The SIM card allows telecom service providers to control the way subscribers access their networks and services. In fact, through the SIM card, telecom providers guarantee to their subscribers: access to the network and services whatever the mobile terminal, authentication mechanism that allows a strong security access to the network, selection of networks when roaming, portability of information (phone-book). At the same time, subscribers may change to a new mobile terminal only by removing the SIM card from one mobile terminal to another and still access the above services they were already subscribed to.
However, more recent mobile terminals are increasingly becoming multimedia terminals suitable to manage games, videos, photos, sounds, multimedia applications, e-mails, links to internet browsers, telephone numbers other than simple phone calls. Particularly, each subscriber is able to configure his mobile terminal by downloading different multimedia applications, internet browsers links or other services offered.
In order to store such multimedia applications a great storage medium is usually required. As the SIM card is not provided with a great internal memory, the multimedia applications, photos, sounds, provider services which configure the mobile terminal of a subscriber are usually stored into the memory of the mobile terminal itself rather than in the SIM card.
Consequently, when a subscriber decides to change his mobile terminal and transfers the SIM card from one mobile terminal to another, the multimedia applications that configured the previous mobile terminal are lost.
Document US 2005/0141438 (GEMPLUS) describes a method and system for automatically establishing a configuration of a communication appliance functioning with a subscriber identification card (SIM) in a communication network. The configuration of the appliance is established via the network, following the detection and communication of an identifier of the appliance over the network by means of the card. The method comprises a prior step according to which a configuration requirement is detected by means of events or the absence of events stored in the SIM card.